Great book for boomers, trying desperately not to get old. Lots of fresh stuff in this book.
I learned that you shouldn't leave voicemail. I already know the young don't wear a watch -- they just ask everyone what time it is -- no, sorry they look at their phones.
I learned how not to be a cougar (not much danger) and a lot about bikini waxing.
I love that she tells the boomers not to hover over the toilet seat and to toss out all plants and dried flowers, and not to send greeting cards.
I have a lot of my own to add but am saving them for my own book.
If you are even a little interested in US politics and economics and the election of Barack Obama, this is a must read. The book details the Democrat and Republican nominations, the vice-presidential selections, and the election period itself. You will learn a lot about the US election process, all the people who didn't run, and all the people behind the candidates. If you read this book, you will think you were there, hearing the calm and cool, the anger and tantrums, the
Full of the gory details, including many direct quotes, but not salacious or mean, the authors describe the highs and lows and personal strengths and weaknesses of all the players, in an even handed way, with nothing surmised or imagined.
You want to know why Hillary puts up with Bill, why Hillary lost the nomination (Bill), why Guiliani didn't run for GOP leadership, who had what affairs, who works hard and who just coasts along, which leaders and wives are demanding prima donnas, whether Sarah Palin is unbalanced, how Obama talked Clinton into being his Secretary of State, what influence McCain and Obama had in the financial crisis, it's all in the book.
Another airport impulse buy, already have it too. This updated version has some new things, but otherwise it's very much the same book.
The most memorable message is that women have much better peripheral vision than men, and that women are much better at reading body language than men, in fact, men are almost blind at when it comes to reading body language.
As for peripheral vision, I have always thought that search and rescue should send out women to look for missing people and have instructed my women friends to look for me if I disappear and not rely on the police. I cannot imagine a man looking down from a plane and spotting something when they can't even find something in a drawer staring right at it. At least there is a physical explanation for it now.
This was an airport impulse buy. I forgot I already had it, but it's very clever and well written, and the updated version is worth the money.
This book contains lots of good pointers for accepting and preparing for ill health when you get old. I found it discouraging. But I am sure that most boomers believe it is inevitable to deteriorate mentally and physically, so this book tells you how to do it in a organized way and how to get lots of people to help you.
Me, I prefer to keep going on as I always have and in fact to get progressively younger. I admit you have to work a little harder to stay in place, and you have to start early before you don't have the mojo anymore to reject books like this one. See my Warrior blog on how to do make sure you don't let your mind and body slip into negative ways.
That aside, the advice about getting off your butt and cleaning out your accumulated stuff is on the mark for anyone. She also advises women to start to wear makeup in order to be taken seriously, which was unexpected and refreshing advice.
Steve's a good writer and his story is interesting. The book is about how he got started in stand up comedy and it left me wanting to read more about Steve.
Steve is so self deprecating in telling his story that he infers that he has no talent, but is only very hard working. We all know how untrue that is, so I guess he doesn't have to tell us the obvious. Coincidentally, Steve came into the store where I work a couple of times latelty and bought some luggage. He was obviously not looking for recognition(wearing a bicycle helmet for disguise) so we just left him alone, checking out all the cases himself. I wanted to tell him how much I liked All of Me, and ask him why it was always left out of lists of his best movies, but, bearing in mind a story from his book about a nurse who asked him to autograph his EKG in the emergency room after he collapsed on stage, I didn't.
This is a potentially great idea for a book, ruined by very bad writing. Most sentences contain no information, but are merely sweeping unsupported statements. Maybe it's a thesis turned into book, but with very little effort applied. There are nuggets of information here and there, so it is worth reading if you are interested in history and economics.
Two stories of Turkish and Armenian families, who end up being closer than either know. One story starts in California and the other in Istanbul. The heroine is a rebelious single mother whose quite shocking behaviour for Turkey is more or less accepted by her all female relatives.
There are lots of issues with the writing in this book, but it offers great insights into the conflicts in daily life in Turkey. Lots of surprises, every chapter is completely unexpected. I do think its worthwhile just to round out one's view of Turkey.
Amazing writing, amazing story about a boy growing up during the country and unknowingly participating in his father's affair and life as a partisan during WW2 in Sweden.
This book is a memoir by a cousin of my mother's, Betty Reimer. Beautifully written, and blessed with several wicked poems, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The Reimer family established a general store in the 1870's in Steinbach, Manitoba, and the memoir chronicles the history of the store, through the personal experiences of a child and teenager.
I read the first chapters based in Steinbach carefully to make sure I found any new scuttlebut but the book mainly fills in details of the story told to me by my mother (Evelyn). The main secret of the family is how Aunt Annie's romance was sabotaged by Uncle Henry for reasons unknown. Rumour abounds.
Betty (now Elizabeth) tells the story of her upbringing in Steinbach, first as a relatively privileged granddaughter of a prominent businessman, H. W. Reimer, and her life growing up and working in the huge general store, and later as a much poorer teenager when her father left the family business and the town to start his own business. Well told, the story paints a clear picture of real people living those years in the foreground of the history of Canada in depression, war, and recovery.
She alludes to the Reimer tendency to independent action and wild impractical dreams without the grit to plan and execute them or consider those others whom it may affect. Heaven knows the family is full of renowned characters who prove this point, especially the male family heads in each generation. She also describes the Mennonite system of inheritance (European system) and how the Reimer money and business were dissipated by decades of fighting amongst the heirs.
The eye openers are there too. When I lived there in the 50s and 60s, the whole town seemed uniformly conservative and stifled by the Kleinegemeinde church. Betty's memories are broader in perspective and describe more liberal ideas and behaviours than I had imagined existed in those early years of the 20th century.
I was moved by the struggle of my parents' generation to get a high school education, even for those with rich grandparents. Heaven knows my mother described this desperation to me many times. And I admired the bravery of those young men who joined the armed forces against strong opposition from home. Leaving home for them meant learning vernacular English, trying to fit in with the mainstream of Canadians, and facing ostracism for being "German".
I was brought to tears at her mention of her sisters and the bond between sisters being the strongest of all bonds, because sisters are the most closely related.
A strong recommendation to anybody who knows Steinbach. And let me know what you think please.
Another blockbuster by Diamond. He describes some major societies and why they collapsed or will collapse, including the Greenland Norse, the Mayans, Anasazi, China, and Haiti. He sites a set of factors but the crowning reason is abuse of the environment in every case. Underlying that is the decision by these societies to destroy their environment in the face of certain death. He says that their vision was as blurry as ours is now as we destroy our planet.
His detailed descriptions of the economies/environments of Easter Island, Rwanda, Australia, and others are riveting. He refutes the idea that the world can produce enough food using fertilizers to feed everyone (rendering economist Jeremy Sachs End of Poverty irrelevant).
He stunned me by stating that Australia can support a maximum of 8 million people (half what it has now) and should stop immigration immediately. He does not mention Canada, but I am sure he would say we are headed in the same direction.
In the last few chapters of the book, he describes examples of responsible development including a heartening description of Shell Oil's operations in New Guinea.
A
must read for anyone interested in our world.
In my all time 5 best Canadian novels. How did I not read this before? READ IT NOW. The characters working in a Yellowknife radio station, a fatal canoe trip in the wilderness, and how it affects the rest of their lives.
Hay won the 2007 Giller Prize for this book.
This is a delightful set of stories of a British ex-pats in a Turkish village. You can buy it at the souvenir stand at the abandoned Greek village that was the subject of the book, Birds Without Wings.
Great book, but nothing is quite like Behind the Scenes at the Museum, her first book.
An excellent book, a must if travelling to Turkey.
Went out and bought all his subsequent books, preparing to move to France.
She's a great writer, and funny. Enjoyed History of Tractors in the Ukraine a bit more.
I enjoyed every word of this densely packed 1500 page book. Serious, humorous, historical, suspenseful, fascinating, I cannot say enough about this book. Each character has foibles and likeable in some way. The descriptions of real catastrophes and political events are described in delightful detail, but one knows that a twist is coming, so you read so carefully, so as not to miss that one sentence or phrase.
Another great book by Daniel Amen. It's very enlightening and so current given how we boomers are all now even more terrified of dementia than cancer. This book focusses on how to overcome overeating by taking care of your brain. The usual advice includes exercise and healthy food, but also keeping your weight under control. It complements End to Overeating by David Kessler, which in away is more practical and original.
